


Dancing in the Graveyard

by Cryptid Kel (TheGreatKelthulhu)



Category: Beetlejuice (1988), Beetlejuice - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:48:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25547701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGreatKelthulhu/pseuds/Cryptid%20Kel
Summary: Lydia Evelyn Dietz wouldnotbe resting in peace, as many of the normal folks would think. They would mourn her as one of the folks who had come and gone before them, but that wouldn’t be the end of it.No, she would be gracefully accepting her afterlife, and joyously dancing in the graveyard.
Relationships: Beetlejuice/Lydia Deetz
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22
Collections: Beetlebabes Week





	Dancing in the Graveyard

**Author's Note:**

> For Babes Week on Tumblr. The prompt for this one is "Graveyard" and Delta Rae's "Dance in the Graveyards" lent itself well for some inspiration.

_A grimey, ghostly figure dressed in a ratty brown coat and a battered tour guide hat skulked around the cemetery, weaving his way through the myriad headstones and graves purposefully, until he finally stopped at one, smiling down at it fondly... **expectantly**..._

__

* * *

Pale, translucent hands reached up from the fresh dirt, clasping onto Beetlejuice’s. He gave them a tug, then the rest of Lydia’s spirit popped up, gaining opaqueness and even a few years of youth back as she rose.

Lydia Evelyn Dietz would _not_ be resting in peace, as many of the normal folks would think. They would mourn her as one of the folks who had come and gone before them, but that wouldn’t be the end of it.

No, she would be gracefully accepting her afterlife, and joyously dancing in the graveyard.

“I was waitin’ for ya, Babes.” Her already long-dead husband grinned at her. “Took ya sweet time.”

Lydia smiled back at him. “And wasn’t I worth the wait?”

“You bet your sweet dead ass.”

Lydia took her husband’s hand, and he proceeded to sweep her around their new dance floor, her long dark skirts billowing around her as he did so.

This display of love and joy had apparently awoken the other residents of the cemetery, as there were a few more of the couple’s fellow deceaseds rising up from their graves.

After regarding the recently rejoined couple for a moment, they followed Beetlejuice and Lydia’s lead, beginning to frolic around the stones and flowers and burial plots.

It seemed that the happiness was infectious tonight.

No longer lost in mourning to their loved ones, people from various eras and methods of departing decided that a couple coming together again post-life was a cause for celebration. For they knew that death never truly parted those who loved each other.

Lydia looked around her new dead digs, and couldn’t help the smile that spread its way across her death-pale face.

This was even better than she had imagined it. She thought she’d pop out, be greeted by her husband, skip around the cemetery a bit, then head out back to the house to say hello to the kids again.

But now she was with her husband—and with an audience of she couldn’t even count how many—dancing in the graveyard.

No resting, but _partying_. _**Celebrating**_!

Beetlejuice spun and dipped his wife and smirked at her smugly. “What a welcome, eh wifey?”

Lydia kissed him, stood herself upright, then skipped away, arms spread.

“It’s _perfect!_ ”

Beetlejuice chuckled and stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets, leisurely sauntering along after her.

Lydia closed her eyes and swayed and skipped to the non-existent music, having more fun than she’d had in years. She was no longer confined to a corporeal, frail, easy to maim body. She was no longer restricted her by mortality. She felt oddly _alive_ now (even without feeling crisp cold air in her lungs, or a heartbeat). She felt _**free**_.

This was **way** better than her funeral. Here, there was no crying. No trying to banish the darkness of death with light. Just dancing, and in the darkness, the only light that of the moon in the sky.

She found herself lost in this thought, not fearing losing time now that it no longer quite existed to her.

“Mom!”

Lydia opened her eyes and spun around.

Just beyond the small iron gate entrance, there stood her and her husband’s children, looking a bit sad and yet relieved and excited.

“Portia!” She dashed over to their oldest, embracing her, then the others. “Emily! Bowie!”

Beetlejuice joined them for a group hug, laughter and a few tears from the kids mixing together.

“We thought we’d find you here,” Portia said, “Seems Mom’s adjusting well.”

“She’s doing _great_!” Beetlejuice hooked an arm around his wife and gave her a big smack on the cheek. “She was a bit late, took her time, but hey—that’s how it is with you women, right? Always ‘fashionably late’.” He smirked and did finger quotes around the last two words.

Lydia rolled her eyes at her husband, and led their kids into the cemetery, still bursting with pride after all these years at the new lives they’d created.

At the ones who’d carry on after them, as they stood by watching from the other side.

There would be no resting this night, not for Lydia Dietz, or her family, or her fellow dead. No mourning for _any_ of them.

Instead, there would be dancing, joy and celebration.

A celebration that Lydia thought she’d be having more or less alone, but her family and the graveyard denizens had came through and were giving her the combined sendoff-and-welcome of an afterlife.

Beetlejuice extended his hand to his wife again. “Wanna dance some more, Babes?”

“Absolutely!” was her reply. 

This was the most alive that the graveyard –and Lydia Dietz—had _ever_ been.


End file.
